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Last Minute Homemade Halloween Costumes

What’s your favourite holiday? Christmas? Easter? Or is it Halloween? The day when we let our imaginations run wild and, instead of feeling that we have to prettify, we are encouraged to look as disgusting as possible.

I love Halloween, I love getting dressed up and playing games. I love bobbing for apples and grossing everyone out. Once upon a time we just threw on a sheet with eye holes cut out, those days are long gone. Now we consider our costume choices carefully. We co-ordinate, we plan and we get excited. You don’t need to spend a fortune on fancy costumes though, nor do you need to be an expert face painter. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Events

International Day of the Girl

In December 2011, the United Nations declared 11 October as the ‘International Day of the Girl Child’, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges that girls around the world face.

This year the focus is on “Innovating for Girls’ Education”.

Cambodia

A lot of study has gone into why it’s so important that we focus on making sure that the girls’ of the world get the education they deserve, and here are some results:

Educating girls has a big impact on communities and societies. Education develops critical thinking skills, which are essential for good leaders. More women are needed to solve global problems!

By educating more girls, we set them up to be able to get good jobs and earn good money. This makes the economy of any country stronger. One extra year of school increases a girl’s future earnings by 10 to 20 percent.

Girls who have been to school are twice as likely to send their children to primary school. So more educated girls!

This year’s International day of the girl is also very special, because Pakistani school girl turned education activist Malala Yousafzai was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, an incredible achievement. At the age of 11 she began to write a blog under a false name for the BBC describing her life under Taliban rule, and her views on the importance of education for girls. This was very risky, as at times the Taliban had banned girls from attending school in the area that she lived. Malala gained some good international recognition for her writing, but the Taliban were not happy with her voice being heard.

“I think of it often and imagine the scene clearly. Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right.”

On 9 October 2012, Malala was on the school bus home after taking an exam. A Taliban gunman entered the bus, demanded to speak with her, and when she identified herself as Malala Yousafzai, he shot her.

Malala was very lucky to survive the incident, and recieved her final medical treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.

Since her recovery, Malala lives with her family in Birmingham and has been busily campaigning for girls rights to receive education, and developing her charity The Malala fund.

She has been described as an inspiration by many of our world leaders, and certainly by her brave choice to speak out for those who deserve an education, for those who do not have the opportunity to make their voices heard, this makes her a worthy nominee of this important prize.

To learn more….

About Malala Yousafzai and her charity, click here…

Also why not check out Day of the girl to find out about a youth-led all girl action team who raise awareness about International day of the girl.

Photography

Title Image: Prabhu D. Boss Parkachik Village, Suru Valley, North India

Global partnership for Education

Events

Things that go whoosh, plop and BANG! Written By You

Cheltenham is a great town for festivals. At the beginning of June, it was time for the the Cheltenham Science Festival. Thea, who is eight years old and in Year 3, went to two events with her mum, as well as a school trip with her class. One of the things she saw was a giant, mechanical spider, as well as a lot of explosions and some smashing chocolate!

Events

I Created a Popstar Role Model – Written By You

Hi my name is Taylor. I am 9 years old, I am in year 5. I live in St Ives in Cambridgeshire. I like irish dancing, Jessie J, Tang So Do and Tuna Pasta. When I grow up I want to be a midwife.

I have been working with my Aunty Bry who is an artist. We have been working together for almost a year when I am not at school.

Our project together is called Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model.

It’s a social campaign, theatre show, documentary and education project.

If you don’t know already, a role model is someone you admire, whose behaviour inspires you, makes you happy. And want to achieve something as well as they have.

Ages ago me and my aunty Bryony had a look at the role models that were offered to kids like me on TV, in music, online. We found they were all very similar. Lots of them talked about fame and money, the girls all looked similar, the way they made you feel was the same, most also tried to sell you something. We started to think about a different role model who wasn’t like that. And we decided to make one come to life. As an alternative.

I chose my top 5 personality traits for a role model from a list that Bryony gave me. These were:

Kindness

Community

Tradition

Hard Work

And

Safety

I then created a character that had these traits. Bryony asks me 100s of questions all the time. I am in charge. I am the manager. She then goes away and makes things come to life. It is very fun. And a bit strange.

Her name is Catherine Bennett.

She works in a Museum with the dinosaurs.

She has a dog called Cookie

She is 29.

She is good at what she does. She worked hard to get there.

Her favourite food is Tuna Pasta.

Her bedroom is light blue.

She has lots of friends, likes parties and being outdoors.

She goes to the gym everyday and practices martial arts.

She has a boyfriend called Matthew and a best friend called Chelsea.

Matthew is a proof reader.

Chelsea is a midwife.

To relax she lays on the sofa and watches TV.

Her favourite film is War Horse.

She likes 80’s music.

She cycles everywhere.

Her favourite TV programme is Come Dine With Me

Catherine as you have seen, has shoulder length blonde curly hair

She wears glasses and a dinosaur bone necklace.

Has blue eyeshadow and red lipstick

She wears knee length skirts and likes polo necks

She is quite covered up. She is quite clumsy so doesn’t wear high heels. She always has a back pack even when she is on the red carpet. She is a normal lady.

We decided that pop music was the best way to reach people my age. So CB became a pop star. My aunty played me hours and hours of music. She then gave me a sentence and made me fill in the blanks with musicians and bands.

CB sings songs like Lily Allen, written by the B52’s and produced by The Gorillaz.

I then gave Bryony and Tom (who makes the music) the things I thought CB should sing about, things that me and my friends like. Animals, Friendship, getting up and being happy.

Catherine Bennett wants you to believe that anything is possible in life. She wants you to use your imagination

And she wants to make sure no one ever feels small.

We now need to get CB famous. So we can prove that kids would like an alternative role model.

We have decided that fame means:

1 million hits on Youtube

Interviews on 3 TV shows

Newspaper and magazine coverage

Celebrity friends

Radio Play

And one big company to offer to buy CB (so we know they are scared and want in on our good thing!)

You can help us by…

Sharing our music and telling people our story. Pass this on to all your friends, and visit the website www.catherinebennett.so

NOW. I want to introduce you to someone –

My pop star role model. Catherine Bennett.

EDITOR’S NOTE — April 2014 —

Since writing this article, Taylor and her aunt have been very busy. First they raised a ton of money to pay for a documentary to be made about their project, and they starred in their show. It was performed in theatres around UK, and then in Australia, where the response has been brilliant. This review from Herald Sun

The show flips between deliciously charming and fiercely confronting as we watch the pair dance with joy and abandon to Jessie J, enact fantasy stories, become knights-errant to fight invisible enemies, and share secrets about each other with the audience.

Taylor is a bright-eyed, innocent fawn in Kimmings’ eyes, while Taylor sees her aunt as a dinosaur with a bad back.

Kimmings in compelling and this production is joyful, self-referential, autobiographical theatre-making at its best, with a touch of feminist politics, a smattering of critical analysis of pop stardom, a huge dollop of comical storytelling and pop culture, and plenty of poignant yearning.

Events

You Too Can be a Model or a Pop Star: Living the Barbie Dream

You might not remember when Barbie was President of the United States. A vet. An entrepreneur with a string of high street stores. An astronaut. A Paralympian. A jockey.

You might not remember when her body measurements were hateful but Barbie herself could do anything and be anything.

I remember.

It’s unlikely my kids will remember Barbie this way since she is now either a model, pop star or actress. It’s not that Barbie can’t be President of the United States since a limited edition Barbie for President 2012 doll was produced or that Barbie the Vet is no more, it’s simply that the most easily available versions of Barbie for sale on the high street are fairies, mermaids, princesses, models and popstars; all of which are tied into films and all of that subsequent merchandising.

To be fair, I also had Pop Star Barbie; mine owned a record company, spoke 6 languages and had a PhD in archaeology. It’s probably fair to say I was a nerd. It’s not also that I think girls today lack the imaginations to make their Barbie mermaids into something; my small has made her Barbie mermaid into a superhero but Barbie used to be every girl [even with the ridiculous figure]. Now, even with the new more “realistic” bodies, Barbie is actually more limited in terms of careers and adventures.

The films may be predicated on the notion of girl power and female friendships, heck Barbie and the 3 Musketeers is practically Germaine Greer-approved, but they are reinforcing an even more narrow version of femininity that is inherently harmful for girls. The opening of the first life-sized Barbie Dreamhouse in Berlin is just further reinforcing the idea of Barbie-as-Object rather than Barbie-the-Adventure-Girl of my childhood.

Barbie-of-the-Dreamhouse only allows two careers: model or pop star. Girls can pretend to bake cupcakes in her fake kitchen and rifle through her wardrobe. There is no evidence of President Barbie or Barbie The Musketeer or Barbie the Vet here. It’s just the plastic pink version of femininity that Barbie has been criticised for more than 40 years. At this point, I’d love a return to Malibu Barbie and Stacey who hang out at the beach surfing. At least they were athletes. Barbie-of-the-Dreamhouse doesn’t do adventures and I’m not entirely sure when she works as a model or pop star when she seems to spend all her time baking cupcakes and dressing up.

Barbie had an opportunity to change into something really quite radical with the return of President Barbie. Instead, Mattel has returned to the pink princess twaddle.

Louise Pennington is a feminist activist, historian and writer. She has been published in the New Statesman and Huffington Post. She tweets about feminism and her cats as @lestewpot. This article was originally published on her blog.